Simply put
- In 2024, deepfakes featuring celebrities and government officials constituted 40% of the year’s high-value fraud cases, according to a report from Biteg.
- Losses from crypto fraud hit $4.6 billion, marking a 24% rise from the previous year.
- The report identified social engineering schemes as the second most prevalent method for crypto fraud, just behind modern Ponzi schemes.
Deepfake videos featuring prominent figures like Elon Musk were significant contributors to high-value scams in 2024, as highlighted in the report.
That year also saw losses amounting to $4.6 billion due to various frauds, which is a notable increase from the year before, according to Bitget’s anti-Scam report.
The report emphasized that “crypto fraud has entered a new era shaped by AI deepfakes and social engineering.” It noted that fraudsters are increasingly leveraging trust and psychological tactics alongside technology, making scams more sophisticated and personalized.
Frequent deepfake scams involved impersonating Musk to promote fake investments or giveaways. Such deepfakes can also be used to evade customer verification and create false identities for investment schemes, leading to phishing attempts via video calls.
Scammers are finding new ways to impersonate executives and journalists to establish phony video calls, deceiving victims into providing work or sharing sensitive information. During these fake meetings, attackers can take control of victims’ devices, compromising data and securing private keys.
Bitget reported some scammers utilize deepfake technology to create fraudulent audio and video, luring victims into joining these deceptive calls.
Interestingly, deepfake scams aren’t exactly new; they gained notoriety back in 2022 with Elon Musk scenarios. Yet, with the rapid advancement of AI, the quality of these deepfakes has improved immensely. In fact, last month, efforts were made to protect individuals from deepfake pornography, although a broader ban on deepfakes remains absent.
Recently, actress Jamie Lee Curtis called on Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, after discovering unauthorized ads featuring her likeness promoting products without her consent.
“The real threat to crypto today isn’t just market volatility; it’s deception,” said Bitget’s CEO, Gracy Chen. “AI not only speeds up fraud; it also makes it harder to uncover.” Moreover, the report ranked social engineering and modern Ponzi schemes as the second and third most dangerous types of scams.
Social engineering scams tap into psychological elements to manipulate victims, described as “low-tech yet highly effective.” One notable example involves romance scams, where attackers fabricate relationships to exploit their targets.
Meanwhile, the classic Ponzi scheme, made infamous by Charles Ponzi in the early 20th century, has experienced what the report describes as a “digital evolution.”
These scams often disguise themselves within trendy concepts such as DeFi, NFTs, or GameFi, presenting as genuine project funding or investment opportunities. Essentially, they retain the classic Ponzi structure of “new money filling the old hole.” This can quickly collapse if funds dry up or the operator withdraws money.
The report noted a rise in Ponzi schemes leveraging user-friendly interfaces, using deepfakes to gain celebrity endorsements, reflecting a dramatically altered fraud landscape compared to just a few years ago.
“Five years ago, avoiding fraud was about not clicking on sketchy links. Nowadays, it’s about not believing what you see,” the report concluded.
